The best new Android games of August 2014

Summer is winding down, but the Android games sure aren't. August saw a ton of really great Android games come to the Google Play Store, including the latest from the creator of Flappy Bird. We've got a few extremely twitchy Android games, and a few for the more casual gamers.

Good to go? Dig in for our top five Android games to hit the Google Play Store in August.

Surgeon Simulator

Surgeon Simulator is a morbidly hilarious game where players have to perform life-saving operations with all the ineptitude that touch input has to offer. Would-be doctors hold their tools with one finger, then tap at the target location with the other. At first it might just seem like there's a lot of random flailing and blood everywhere, but every procedure has a process which you can review in your retro iZap PDA. There's an unhealthy array of surgical tools to learn and master over the course of a lengthy single-player campaign.
Surgeon Simulator is available on tablets running Android 4.0.0 and up. No ART support, unfortunately. All in all, Surgeon Simulator is a bloody good time.

Swing Copters

Swing Copters is the latest game from Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen. Your goal is to guide a little orange dude with a propellor hat through gaps in girder that, for some reason, have hammers swinging through them. You do this by tapping the screen to make him switch directions before he careens wildly and crashes to the ground. Originally, Swing Copters was just as hard (if not harder) than Flappy Bird, but it has since been updated to be much more accessible.

Unpossible

Unpossible is a fast as hell racing game where players have to steer around a stark tube and avoid incoming obstacles as long as possible. The fluid gameplay and sharp Tron style to the game's visuals are both immediately impressive. The challenge ramps up to Super Hexagon levels very quickly. You can also try your hand at new daily challenges, or take it easy in zen mode.

Duet

Duet is a beautifully simple but intense reaction game. Players tap to the left and right of the screen to rotate two orbs, which stay the same distance from one another on a fixed axis while obstacles come flying down from above. Maneuver both orbs through the obstacles without popping either of them, or you'll get sent back to the beginning of the stage.

Pick up Duet for its pensive soundtrack, deep messages about partnership, and huge challenge curve.

Alone

The premise of Alone is simple: drag up and down on a the screen to pilot an escape pod through a deadly gauntlet of galactic debris. You get two levels of shields that can soak up a bit of punishment. Go for as long as possible in order to unlock higher difficulty levels. The controls are razor-sharp. You drag behind the ship to push it up or down (the direction is inverted by default and feels great, but you can flip that in the options). The sensitivity for this is really high, so you're just rolling your thumb on the screen rather than swiping. This is perfect for playing on small screens, but scales up to tablets just as well.

Alone is a modern, fast, and polished endless runner you won't soon forget.

Your favorite new Android games?

Those are the top five Android releases we've spotted in the Google Play Store this month, but hit us up in the comments with the new games you've been getting into. Stick around tomorrow, when we dig into the best non-game apps that came out in August.